Former fellow establishes program at Weatherhead

The Weatherhead Center for International Affairs has established a newProgram on Transatlantic Relations, thanks to a donation by PierreKeller of Geneva. Keller was a fellow in 1979–80 at the then–Center forInternational Affairs, as part of a program that welcomes senior-leveldiplomats, politicians, military officers, and private-sectorprofessionals to the University for a year of scholarly activity andreflection.

Keller’s donation consists of an endowment for a visiting professorshipto be taken up by a scholar or public servant who has distinguished himor herself through academic research, teaching, or public service inthe field of trans-Atlantic relations. Incumbents of the professorshipwill use their appointments to carry out research with special emphasison issues relevant to the political future of U.S.-European affairs andto teach a course in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences or the HarvardKennedy School (HKS). Keller has also committed operational funds forfive years to establish and help sustain the program.

Another donation, by the Janssen family of Brussels, will complementKeller’s commitment by supporting both an annual Paul Henri SpaakLecture by a prominent European and the presence of occasional speakersfor the Weatherhead Center’s Seminar on Transatlantic Relations, aswell as for speakers from the European Union in joint activities withthe Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies and HKS.

“At a time when attention shifts more and more to Asia, the MiddleEast, and Africa, as well toward global issues,” said Beth A. Simmons,Clarence Dillon Professor of International Affairs and director of theWeatherhead Center, “the generous gifts of Pierre Keller and theJanssen family enable us to strengthen research and teaching ontrans-Atlantic and European affairs in cooperation with importantsister institutions at Harvard.”

The Weatherhead Center has appointed Karl Kaiser, a Ralph I. StrausFellow at the center and an adjunct professor of public policy at HKS,as the program’s founding director. An advisory committee chaired byButtenwieser University Professor Stanley Hoffmann is also comprised ofthe Weatherhead Center’s Steven Bloomfield, Richard Cooper, KarlKaiser, and Beth Simmons; the Kennedy School’s Ashton Carter and JosephNye Jr.; and the Center for European Studies’ Patricia Craig, PeterHall, and Charles Maier. It thus reflects the highly cooperative scopeof this effort.

The first Pierre Keller Visiting Professor is likely to be appointed for spring 2009.